His Greatest Fear
by swimming-toon-lover
Summary: Robin has always been a mysterious kinda guy, but fear is something rarely seen in him. But everyone has a greatest fear, and Robins is about to be found out in a very bad way.
1. Chapter 1

I'm sorta big on history stories, and Robin always seems so, I don't know, not scared of anything. I wanted him to have a deeper, darker secret.

I don't own any of this, man that sucks.

His greatest fear

The sun had just set behind the massive T in the harbor. Somewhere in the darkness, a car alarm went off, a cat mewed at a passing dog, and a man who looked like a clown grinned wickedly at a large red a white tent being erected and circus trucks pulling in. The clown man cackled to the dark sky.

"Alright!" came and excited yell from the doorway. Beast boy had just entered, brandishing a brightly colored flyer. "Circus is in town!"

The other titans turned in their seats on the couch to face him. All but one anyway.

"Awesome." Said Cyborg, punching his fist into the air. Starfire flew over to examine the poster.

"Oh wondrous!" she squealed in delight. "Look at the animals!"

Raven grimaced. "Overpriced, undercooked food, board, un-amusing old animals, and –"

BB cut her off. "Clowns!" Raven looked agitated, but realized that she would be dragged along anyway, so returned to her book. Robin, who had been listening closely, turned at the mention of clowns and frowned.

'Well' he thought, 'At least there aren't-' but his thought was cut off as Starfire chose this exact moment to squeal in delight, "OOO! There are people flying. Perhaps they too are not of this Earth."

Robin froze, but no one noticed, they were all still excitedly examining the poster. Soon however Cyborg's face fell.

"Looks like Rae was right about the overpriced. Look at how much a ticket costs!" Robin looked up again, slightly more hopeful. But it was quickly squashed when BB grinned broadly and pulled 5 neon orange tickets from behind his back and waved them around.

"Free tickets outside the door!" he said. "We're famous."

Robin was lost to the world, absorbed in his own thoughts. It was, as usual, Starfire who snapped him back to reality.

"Oh, won't it be glorious?" she chided. His frown deepened.

'_Why didn't I ever tell them? Then I wouldn't have this problem!'_

He knew he couldn't bring himself to say yes, so he said nothing, stood up, and stalked off. Cyborg and BB watched Robin pass between them, followed his back to the door, and the slide shut. They looked at each other questioningly, and Cyborg shrugged his shoulders. Star floated, dumbfounded, a few feet away.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked in amazement.

Later that night, the titans were waiting in a long line at the circus gate. Raven, as expected, was looking board and occasionally scowling at Cyborg and Beast boy, bouncing around. More unexpectedly however, Robin had the same agitated air about him.

"Robin, what is wrong?" asked Starfire. "Was it something I said?"

They were at the back of the group and after looking around to be sure that no one was listening he muttered,

"I just don't like the circus."

"But why not?" she asked, confused.

Robin put up a hand and began to make up some answer about smelly elephants when the line moved and they were inside the gates.

As they walked, Star, Cy, and BB stared wildly around. Raven trudged along behind, noticing every straggly haired, snaggle toothed animal keeper putting screaming kids onto smelly animals. Robin was staring around at various posters reading; 'See the amazing flying Andersen family. Tonight, 7 p.m.'

A horrible feeling gripped him and his stomach turned. He heard far distant shouts and screaming, and felt a hand grip on his shoulder. Then Raven was in front of him.

"Robin? Robin!" she was snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"What's up with you?" she said once he shook his head.

"I don't like the circus." He said dryly.

"That makes two of us, but we're still outnumbered." She said.

They had arrived outside of the big top, and stopped. The other three had already gone inside, not realizing. Soon enough though three sets of hands reached out and pulled the stragglers into the tent.

They found seats in an empty row that soon filled up around them. After a few minutes the lights went out and a man appeared in a spotlight in the ring below.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, welcome to the Darkling Brothers circus!" This was followed by applause and shouts.

"And here at Darkling Brothers we like to start things off; with a bang!" from behind him there was a loud bang and a smiling girl went flying through the air. Another spot light flicked on to reveal a boy, about 16 by the looks of him, swinging through the air on a trapeze.

As he caught the girl there were many ooo's and ahh's and loud applause, but the two girls on either side of Robin felt him tense up. They both looked at him as he stared out at the people, now flipping around to more applause, transfixed. Starfire was distracted by a particularly amazing stunt, but Raven kept watching Robin.

"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked. When he didn't answer, it hit her like a train. She knew what the matter was; she had seen it in his mind.

"Robin!" she said urgently. Her concern had aroused the attention of the others, Robin still unmoving.

"What's wrong with him?" Asked Cyborg hurriedly.

"His-" but Raven didn't finish her sentence, as there was a loud chorus of screams and yells and 4 of the 5 acrobats plummeted to the ground. One boy, about 13, stood alone at the top of a platform, horrified at the scene below him.

"NO!" Robin yelled trying to jump up. Raven and Starfire held him back. A loud, arrogant, voice rang through the tent.

"Seem familiar, birdie?" The voice cackled and all the "people" around the titans vanished in a shimmer.

"Holograms?" Cyborg breathed. The acrobats that had just plunged to their deaths were getting up, disconnecting wires from their waists and heading toward them.

"Now," came the voice. "I don't think you'll need any friends." Arms surrounded the titans so quickly that they were taken by surprise and dragged into the darkness.

"And finally, it's time to face your fears little birdie, and mend those broken wings, OR." The spotlight came back on to reveal the titans dangling from the top of the tent in a bubble and bound by some strange material, Starfire in the same arrangement in her own bubble. The man below that had been speaking looked up, his purple suit, green hair, and white face belonged unmistakably to the Joker, who was grinning his oh so evil grin up at the still stunned boy wonder.

This was really gonna be a one shot, but it got a lot longer than I thought I would, so I'm gonna split it up into 2 chaps. Hope you enjoyed it and please review!


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2 of "His greatest fear" **

**Thanks to M.C. Castle for the review (p.s. Robins not afraid of clowns, just well, read on you'll see). **

For the first time in the last few hours, Robin grinned.

"You're joking?" he said, noticing the irony and mentally smacking himself before continuing.

"The fact that we're in a giant, smelly tent has nothing to do with any-" but he cut off when out of nowhere a hand grabbed his belt, and jerked it off of him.

"Now who's joking!" shouted Joker. Ok seriously, the joke puns were getting old.

"Now you would appear to have a choice." He continued. "Who do you save, the girl of the rest? And of course the only way to save either is to get up there and fly little Grayson, fly!" Joker cackled as he spoke and his laughter only grew as he finished.

Robins eyes grew wide and darted around, first to Raven, Cy, and BB, then to Starfire, and then to, as the Joker had said, the only way to save anyone; the trapeze.

Above him the others were struggling to free themselves, but they weren't too worried. Honestly, a trapeze? This Joker guy was not as tough as they had been told. No, not worried at all, except Raven, the only one who knew of Robin's greatest fear.

The others confidence in their leader soon began to fade however, as they watched him standing simply standing below them, unmoving.

"Mwat ees ee mewing?" said BB through the gag.

"Mi munno." Replied Cyborg.

"Mrrents!" said Raven fearfully.

"Mwhat?" yelled the other two.

"Mis Mrrents!" she shouted then she rolled her eyes and their confused expressions.

"Mrazerath, Memtrion, Minthos!" the gags glowed black then fell off their faces.

"His Parents!" she said urgently. "His family was acrobats, and they died in a show. They fell, and he watched it from above." The boys stared at her, at a complete loss for words. Suddenly this situation seemed more dire.

"We've got to get ourselves out." Raven said.

"But what about Star?" asked Cyborg.

"If we get ourselves out, he can do it for her." She said, and they immediately began to struggle against their bonds.

"This is no use!" said BB. "Specially made. Typical."

Cyborg charged up his blowtorch finger.

"It's worked before, taking on each others problems." He said, and began to cut through Ravens bonds. She actually smiled as he freed her hands.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zin-" the capsule plummeted as she spoke. At the last second however, a door just big enough for the capsule to slide into opened up, and it rolled inside.

From above them Starfire let out a muffled scream. Robin, who had watched in horror, now scanned the ground below Star for another fail-safe. He couldn't find one. If Star fell…

There was an ominous click above him. A large digital timer had begun a countdown above her pod. Robin grimaced. He hated timers.

"Okay," he told himself, "Okay, oh, I should've told them sooner!" he thought as he began to walk toward the ladder.

"Tick, tock little birdie." Chided the Joker. Robin had almost forgotten he was there. He quickened his pace until finally he was at the bottom of the platform. His father's voice echoed in his ears.

"It's like riding a bike Dick." He had said when Dick had been off the trapeze for a few months with a broken arm. "You never forget."

Then he heard the terrified screams of circus goers as the acrobat family fell…

The timer gave a particularly loud tick, and Robin looked up. Starfire was struggling against her bindings, her eyes glowing solid green, but the look on her face was terrified nonetheless.

"Okay," he told himself again. "I can do this. It's just like a bat line."

He began to climb the ladder.

"This isn't so bad." He thought

"Tick, tock, tick, tock." Joker chided from below. "Hurry now! Such a waste, a pretty little, Ah!"

Robin looked down. The other three had gotten free and were now attacking the Joker.

"I can't stop it!" Cyborg yelled up from the console. "You've gotta do it man!"

"EELP!" came the muffled yell of Starfire. Now she was looking up at the timer.

10…

Robin had the trapeze in his hands now.

9…

8…

He couldn't do it. He looked franticly around, Joker still cackling even though BB and Raven had him captured.

7…

6…

5…

He looked at star, her terrified eyes locking with his masked ones.

4…

He was unaware he had leapt from the platform until he noticed he was getting closer to Star, and shut his eyes tight.

3…

He opened his eyes again, whizzing through the air.

2…

You never forget.

1…

Just like a bat line.

0

He grabbed the top of the pod just as it was released from its wire. Now holding on with one hand, he landed on the other platform. He released Starfire from her pod and she threw her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Robin!" she cried. "Thank you for my rescue!" However, her face fell slightly and she drew back.

"But why did it take you so-" he cut her off.

"I should have told you before. I don't like the circus, because my parents died in one. My family was acrobats until a villain in Gotham made it so they fell, with no net, and I watched from above. Then Batman took me in, and trained me." He finished.

"Oh, Robin." She said in her oh so sweet Starfire voice, and she hugged him again.

"So are we going home or what?!" Cyborg yelled up.

"Yeah," said Robin, "Let's go home."

**SO there it is. Robins greatest fear of trapezeing again (that's not a word is it?) and Starfire helped him overcome it! YAY STAR!!!! Alright. Well, check out my other stories if you liked this one! Peace/**

**STL**


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